Italian job boosts former ERC1 Junior champion Mares for home attack
Filip Mareš, who famously beat Chris Ingram to the 2019 FIA ERC1 Junior title by 0.3 seconds, prepared for his upcoming Czech championship attack with a successful outing on Rally il Ciocco e Valle del Serchio in Italy last weekend.
Mareš finished P12 on the Tarmac event, the opening round of the Italian championship, in his Laureta Auto Škoda Team-entered Fabia Rally2 Evo alongside co-driver Radovan Bucha.
The outing marked a return to Italy for Mareš, who finished a fine eighth overall on the country’s ERC-counting Rally di Roma Capitale last July.
Afterwards, Mareš said: “The Italian stages are beautiful in one word and, thanks to the unstable weather, they also offered us a great opportunity to test the new Michelin tyres properly. We are not very satisfied with the 12th place in the finish, but we know what we need to improve. We learned a lot during that week and we can’t wait for the start of the Valašská Rally.”
Kowax Valašská Rally ValMez hosts the Czech championship opener from March 26-28. It’s the first of a seven-round schedule, which includes Barum Czech Rally Zlín from August 27-28, a mainstay of the FIA European Rally Championship.
Photo: Facebook.com/filipmaresrally
